Washing machines at Rick's Restorations . . .

[unclejohn]

You might have seen this on TV or over the Internet since Rick Dale has become a familiar figure in America. Granted, his (and his mates') artful restorations of some vintage and antique appliances truly give impressive results. Thought AW could be interested to investigate what is goin' on in there with washers. Of particular interest here is Rick's possible works on washing machines:

Indeed, their restorations include: •Washing machines

As a sample of this you ought to check out the video about a 1930s Easy washer (see link below)

http://on.aol.com/video/restoring-the-easy-washer-machine-517570191

 

[unclejohn]

...Added a couple of pictures showing a few washing machines featured on Rick's now famous cable TV program ***American Restoration***

http://www.ricksrestorations.com/

 

[unclejohn]

...And that one over here, in need of some repair, seems to be waiting anxiously to be rejuvenated. More than often it is expensive, but such art and skill cannot possibly be achieved at a cheap price.

 

[unclejohn]

Rick's Restorations

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_Restoration_episodes

 

[kb0nes]

Sleeves

Wow, I don't think I had ever seen Rick in a shirt with sleeves like in that first photo. Must be trying to class things up.

His restorations do look good, perhaps a bit too good.

They sometimes seem a bit reckless when they do the disassembly, it may be wise if they don't get the one of a kind museum pieces.

 

[combo52]

History Channel Productions

Are all just too much hype, you have to watch an hour of programming to get 15 minutes worth of interesting content, they just keep putting out teasers, repeating, jumping from one item to another, and all the while interrupting 50% of the time with the same commercials over and over again, It makes me want to watch the pledge drive on public television, LOL.

 

  But seriously it can be fun, but I agree Phil I will not be sending the Westinghouse L-1000 pair in for restoration or any other appliance or automobile that is worth anything, from what we can see of the shop in the video it doesn't look to be all that well equipped with decent tools for such a highly touted production, I think the money was spent elsewhere.

 

[yogitunes]

when I seen the title of the thread for "Rick"......I first thought it was about our own "RickR", a handsome guy who has done some excellent restores on several machines....my bad

actually, I would rather see a show on our own JohnL restoring machines, the way it should be done.....

but these shows are all hype, and made out to be somewhat better or easier than it really is, not to mention they show little knowledge outside of repainting versus rebuilding a washer from the ground up.....it all falls down to ratings, and nothing else.....not to mention commercial overkill....if you can get past all that, it might be worth watching, but more or less, I just change the channel....

 

[Unimatic1140]

Cute, but...

Restoring a vintage wringer washer is nothing compared to restoring a vintage automatic.

I would love to see them tackle a Westinghouse Laundromat lol.

 

[westie2]

Nothing beats what has been shown picture wise or videod on this AW.org.  I enjoy every one of the restorations that have been posted here.

 

[unclejohn]

Rick's TV show pluses and minuses...

Thanks for sharing your interesting comments, guys!

IMHO:

A tour of their headquarters in LV shows that they're well equipped and do possess some knowledge about restoration of vintage and antique memorabilia. The fact that they (Rick and his cohorts) 'claim' having expertise in the repair/restoration of various gizmos doesn't mean they master everything with equal capabilities. I see Rick as ''the guy doing the job for those who pay and do not want (or cannot) make restorations themselves.'' Probably, most (though not all) people at AW.org can do the maintenance/repairs -or restorations- themselves. For WM, I do not think that the people on Rick's show (including Rick himself) have the depth in expertise of some people encountered on AW.org. Their scope is simply too wide for that being possible. However, in the defense of Rick's endeavours I'd say that such a concept on the commercial scale of TV/digital media is beneficial to everybody having the slightest interest in vintage and antique collectibles--and that includes washing machines/dishwashers/vacs. In some mysterious ways, it does help put on the map entities like AW.org, Vacuumland and several other collectors/restoration forums and fan sites.

 

[jetcone]

Amen to that

<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Robert!

 

 

[bradross]

I hear you, Robert!

I admire the lot of you that tackle the project of restoring any type of automatic, with so many more moving parts - solenoids, floats, valves, etc. etc.! My two wringer washer restorations seem rather simple in comparison.

It would be interesting to see him take on a Westinghouse Laundromat or similar. He did an amazing job of restoring a pinball machine (baseball diamond with players.)